Typically a “fly in the wall” on here but ranting because I’m pissed off:
How to Train When Suppressed by Your Day Job:
1.) Daily Battle Rhythm/Priorities of Work. Have a daily battle rhythm, for the weekend too. Waking up at 0400 and getting your main lift or conditioning done before the sun comes up is a huge win for the day. No matter how shitty your day goes, at least you already have that hard training session under your belt. Also, doing a 20 rep Widowmaker set of squats is easier to do at 0500 when your body and mind are fresh after 8 hours of sleep, vice 1800 after a long and draining day at the office. For me, strength in the morning and conditioning in the afternoon/evening has worked best. Ideally, you get so accustomed to waking up at 0400 to train that your body gets up automatically without the need for an alarm (Jocko level). Note on Priorities of Work- this is a list of things you need to get done, in order of importance. This allows you to easily prioritize and execute, which facilitates success in stressful and uncertain environments. MAKE TRAINING PRIORITY #1, NOT YOUR DAY JOB. You shouldn’t tell anyone at your day job this. But it’s true- you need to keep the main thing the main thing, or else your dreams will never come to fruition and you’ll die a broken shell of a man who never even scraped the surface his full potential. To “walk the dog” on this, start by doing a set of 50 push-ups and 50 sit-ups right after you roll out of bed. If not sit-ups, then a 2min Plank or 50 Hanging Leg Raises works. Then do that again right before you go to sleep. You’ve already got 100 reps in for the day of the main calisthenics, which is better than nothing. Example Priorities of Work:
“1.) PT (Strength, Core/Work Capacity)
includes nutrition and sleep
2.) Work-related course (0600-1900 daily for 2wks including weekend)
3.) Admin tasks for day job
For the work-related course, I had to wake up at 0330 to train from 0400-0530, and inhale >1500cal “Ranger School style” in about 10min, so I could be at work at 0550. I then did calisthenics at work-related course whenever able even though people looked at me weird. I ate every single calorie of my lunch, and went straight to the gym when I got back from the course at 2000. I wasted no time during the second training session, and got home at 2100. I had another “Ranger” meal and was asleep by 2130, to give me 6 hours. 6 hours is not ideal, but that’s just how it played out. It was a brutal 2 weeks, but Inveniam Viam.
2.) Meal Prep. Every single calorie in your meal plan needs to be cooked on Sunday and in a Tupperware by Sunday night before you go to sleep. Each individual breakfast/lunch/dinner needs its own Tupperware, as opposed to having vats of meat sauce, chicken, pasta, or other individual ingredients. That way you save time by just grabbing a Tupperware and heating it up instead of breaking out three Tupperwares and putting together a meal from those ingredients. I will say that I prefer making eggs nightly, because it tastes better than 3 or 4-day old refrigerated eggs. If I get back from work past 2000, I prefer to bring microwave food for breakfast. The calories must come at all costs. It’s best to get meal prep done early Sunday morning right after PT so you can relax Sunday afternoon and prepare for the upcoming week. That’s 15x Tupperwares, for 5x days of breakfast/lunch/dinner. You’ll be saving that Tupperware money though when you have a meal prepped and don’t have hit the Jack-in-the-Box drive-through at 2130 after spending 3 hours working on a PowerPoint or some other menial “POG” labor.
3.) Garage Gym. A DIY deadlift platform costs >$500. Squat stand, weights, and bar ~$800, but if you’re serious about training and achieving your goals, that price is worth it. This is for when you get off your day job at 2100 and need to lift. Or when you have a 0600-1900 work-related course daily for 2wks including a weekend. It’s inherently easier to squeeze those training sessions in at home than driving to the local gym. At this point, you need to get into the gym with one purpose: hitting your planned weights, then eating and going to sleep. I basically copied that from one of Jim Wendler’s books but it’s a no-brainer. A garage gym facilitates this better than going to your local gym and can save an hour of your time. The weights may feel heavy, but every part of a program is designed to build onto every other part, from one training session to the next. One day or week of Super Squats or 5/3/1 earns you the right to move onto the next. If you miss workouts, particularly the main lift, you will not progress.
4.) Discipline. Jocko hits the nail on the head. Discipline truly is freedom. Discipline beats motivation, every time. Motivation is a “summertime soldier” of an emotion that only sticks around when things are going well. It’s ok to not be motivated all the time. So long as you have discipline; the habituated ability to control your emotions and actions in chaotic, austere, stressful, and uncertain environments, when fatigued/cold/wet/miserable. Discipline is always doing what you’re afraid to do, but robotically sometimes because you’re extremely tired and going off muscle memory. Discipline encompasses all 3 other points covered above. It takes discipline to stick to a daily battle rhythm even on a Saturday or Sunday, or at 0400 on the track before a full day at a live-fire range. It takes discipline to meal prep for >5000cal/day and then put all those calories into your body when you feel like throwing up. It takes discipline to PT in your garage gym when you could be watching Netflix. A common trait of all billionaires, CEOs, warrior-sages (Jocko, Lavery, Goggins) and field-grade military officers (shout out to Ripper-3 rah) is waking up early to PT before the day even starts. The common denominator in all those successful people though is DISCIPLINE, not motivation.
End rant.